


Without you, my life would be still in the dark

by Carnadine



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), M/M, MerMay, Starts a bit sad but it gets better, near-drowning, no beta we die like man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-02-28 14:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18758476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carnadine/pseuds/Carnadine
Summary: Kei lived a quiet, unassuming life. Nothing interesting had happened to him, and nothing exciting awaited him at his new college life.That was until the rain washed away the monotony and showed him what lays under the surface.Written for MerMay 2019





	Without you, my life would be still in the dark

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by Nina's [art](https://twitter.com/sugar_levels/status/955634589409607681)!

Kei is fifteen when the heaviest rains in thirty years hit the east of the Honshu island, trapping him and Akiteru in Sendai. 

It starts as a tropical storm, with strong winds and rain just like the forecast on TV said. Kei was visiting his brother before he's due to go to university in Tokyo when the rain started. From the window he can see the tree's branches swaying wildly in the park below Akiteru's tiny flat, the rain splattering loud on the glass. 

"Don't worry Kei! We can watch movies and eat snacks, like when we were kids! Sort of a bonding experience", Akiteru said.  
His brother is too sentimental for his own good.

The wind finally recedes, but the rain goes for days and days and days. It wasn't that annoying at first when the brothers could spend the afternoon watching movies and following the news about the storm. But when Kei tries to go back to Torono and prepare for his first year of college, he ends up soaked, shoes splashing loud on the platform of the Sendai station. The sign is posted on the closed gates of the station: no trains are leaving because of the bad weather.

Kei isn't worried, it has happened other times, he tells himself as he walks back to Akiteru's home, watching how the drainage system overflows and the water joins the streams going down the street. 

But after another night of incessant rain, the brothers woke to the banging of the front door, the neighbour shouting them to evacuate to the rooftop because the water was almost reaching the second floor and the government issued a flood warning for the area.

The sky is clearing once they're out the building, making the damage more evident: the streets are literal rivers, with floating cars and debris from the flooded houses. Both Tsukishima brothers are barricaded in the rooftop along the rest of the residents, waiting for some sort of rescue team to come and get them.

“Mrs. Hamada! Has anyone seen Mrs. Hamada?”

“The old lady on the 3rd floor?” The porter of the building looks over the group huddled on the rooftop, eyes searching frantically, “She’s not here!”

The water is already reaching the third floor and on one of the windows, a rag is moving desperately.

“Down there!” 

Everyone moves quickly amidst shouted orders, looking for anything that might help to rescue the lady. They came up with a couple of long ropes, and a simple plan: one person goes down on one rope and ties the other to the lady.  
But who?

Kei doesn't know what prompts him to raise his hand, offering to help the old lady. Maybe he's annoyed that no one had the balls to volunteer. Maybe is that nothing really exciting has happened to him during his 19 years alive, and this might be the thing that he'll talk later in life, 'Once I saved someone on a terrible storm'.

“No! I’ll go in his place!”

“Nonsense, Tsukishima,“ the person who acts like the leader of the group is tying a rope around Kei’s waist, knots tight, “He’s lighter than you and has better reach. We need you up here to hold the ropes.”

“It’s ok, brother,” says Kei as he fixes his glasses, “just make sure to keep the rope secure and pull me up.”

Maybe if Kei had stayed on the volley team, he would be more fit now, because to rope down a building is not as easy as TV makes it seem like.  
_Now isn't the time to lament for what-ifs_ , he thinks while reaching the window and the grateful hands of Mrs. Hamada. 

The old lady is starting to go up when a shout pierces the air through the roaring of the water.

“Look! The hills!”

Akiteru and the others look in horror how half of the nearest mountain dissolves in a river of mud and trees that flow down through the city at a terrifying speed.

Kei only gets a glimpse of _something_ speeding downhill before he's underwater, the thundering noise of the current drowning Akiteru’s shouts. His first instinct is to grab the rope around him as tight as he can, the only thing that is preventing him to go down the flow of murky water.  
But the current is relentless, the debris hitting him when he tries to surface for air, tries to get which way is up or down, tries... until the rope gives out, and he's engulfed by the mudslide flowing toward the sea.

* * *

“Kei!”

Kei wakes up to the buzz of many people talking, like the noise of a very busy beehive, and the blurry face of what is probably his brother, who helps him to sit on the small cot while his eyes get used to the artificial light. His mouth is too dry to speak, but he tries anyway, “brother, what…”

“We are at an emergency hospital,” Akiteru’s hands feel weird when he helps him to drink water from a bottle, “The rescue team found you in the beach…”

_Hospital? Beach? How--_

"...and then they carried you here with the other people hurt by the storm," when Akiteru finally gives him his glasses, Kei can see that his brother’s hands are bandaged up, the gauze covering his palms. Akiteru has red-rimmed eyes and his clothes are rumpled, but he looks fondly at Kei while speaking softly, “It’s a miracle you are here, Kei. Do you remember anything?”

“I…”  
It's more like a collection of sensations than concrete memories: The cold water, the debris hitting him, the panic of not being able to surface and _breathe_.

And then, amidst the muddy water, _something_ advancing against the current.  
A strong grip on his arm, moving him against the flow of the mudslide.  
A pressure inside his head, like a stake piercing his head.  
And then, a voice.

_Are you alive?_

The sudden pain that hits his head is strong enough to make him lose grip of the water bottle, and before it hits the floor, Kei has already gone back into the darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this au in my wip for AGES, and finally got the chance to review this and post it.
> 
> I aim to finish this in May, so let me know if you liked it!  
> Kudos, comments, or tell me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/shiho_carnadine).
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
